City Hall will add more Covid-19 vaccination stations in Bangkok for a total of 25 to speed up inoculations in the capital. The first site will be opened at Central Plaza Ladprao shopping centre on Wednesday.
Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) met on Saturday with representatives of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, including chairman Sanan Angubolkul, and other agencies to discuss vaccination cooperation.
The city administration and the chamber earlier struck a deal to set up 14 vaccination sites outside hospitals.
The 14 places are the SCG head office in Bang Sue, Central Plaza Ladprao, The Mall Bangkapi, Robinson Lat Krabang, Tesco Lotus Minburi, Samyan Mitrtown, True Digital Park, Thanya Park, Asiatique, Central Plaza Pinklao, Iconsiam, a PTT station on Rama II Road, The Mall Bangkae and Big C Bang Bon
The chamber later proposed 11 more sites. Now, equipment is being prepared and the BMA Health Department will check to make sure everything meets the standard requirements.
Each of the 25 vaccination sites will have capacity to inoculate 1,000 to 3,000 people a day, according to the BMA. All 25 could vaccinate between 38,000 and 50,000 people daily.
All sites will provide the service for seven months. A trial run of the system will take place at Central Plaza Ladprao on Tuesday. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will open it the next day.
The venue plans to inoculate 1,000 people a day, from 8am to 5pm. Target groups are medical frontline workers and people with at-risk careers such as garbage-collecting staff in the BMA’s 50 districts and teachers. The other vaccination venues will open gradually.
Participants at Saturday's meeting agreed to give priority for vaccination to medical frontline staff, as well as teachers who work closely with students. In Bangkok, there are more than 160,000 teachers at pre-school, primary, secondary and vocational educational levels.
After these groups get vaccinated, high-risk groups with seven chronic diseases and the elderly will be given the shots, according to the BMA.
Bangkok logged the highest number infections of any province on Saturday with 1,112 out of the 2,419 new cases reported by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
